Uncertainty and doubt over sedition laws

Reporter: Geoff Hutchison

KERRY O'BRIEN: And now to sedition laws. One of the more contentious aspects of the Government's new counter-terrorism bill that even the government members of a Senate committee of inquiry want dumped. Although the Attorney-General is resisting, as he made plain on this program last night. Under the changes, those who urge others to use force or violence against Australia's people or its institutions will face seven years imprisonment if found guilty of the charge. But critics say sedition is an archaic concept and that the criminal code already provides protection against such behaviour. Among those voices of dissent, some of Australia's best known cartoonists and satirists who claim they too could now face the threat of jail. Geoff Hutchison reports.

LAURENCE MAHER, BARRISTER: Sedition is an old criminal offence going back 500 years, which was designed to prevent speech and conduct which was thought to be a precursor to treason. So that, for example, if one were foolish enough to suggest that the king was a fool then you faced conviction and on conviction the penalty of death would be applied.

BILL LEAK, CARTOONIST, THE AUSTRALIAN: Sedition is a, sort of, basic component of satire. If your cartoon or your satire can't be considered as seditious then you're probably not doing a very good job.

GEOFF HUTCHISON: Bill Leak has been calling the "king of fool" for a long time. But now he fears the controversial updating of Australia's dormant sedition laws represents a profound attack on free speech.

BILL LEAK: I wasn't really personally worried about it because I thought I'm only a harmless cartoonist and all we ever do is make jokes and exercise satire. Then I saw Mr Ruddock on TV saying that the cartoonists and satirists had nothing to fear. That's when I went from alert to alarmed.

GEOFF HUTCHISON: The new sedition legislation is just a slim part of the Federal Government's anti-terror bill. Under its provisions, any person found guilty of urging others to overthrow the constitution or government or urging force or violence to be used against another community group or Australia's defence forces, like those serving in Iraq, will now face seven years imprisonment.

PHILIP RUDDOCK, ATTORNEY-GENERAL: This is an offence which will arise if you make those comments recklessly and where an ordinary man would expect that the outcome would be that people are encouraged to use force or violence in the circumstances that I've outlined. That is a matter that the Australian community wants to see addressed.

GEOFF HUTCHISON: Sedition has been part of the Crimes Act in Australia since 1914. Barrister Laurence Maher is firmly of the belief the law has only ever been used as a crude political tool to silence dissenting voices.

LAURENCE MAHER: At national level, the last time there was a prosecution was in 1953, the coronation year, when the Menzies government, unsuccessfully as it turns out, prosecuted three members of the Communist Party for an article in the run-up to the coronation, which was scathingly critical of the royal family and went through the membership of the royal family in very unflattering terms.

BILL LEAK: What worries me most is that the extensions to the laws, they move the emphasis on to what a person says, rather than the results of what a person has said. It's going to make it impossible, for example, for a journalist to interview a terrorist or interview somebody who is supportive of that terrorist's cause. That's deeply worrying because how on earth are we to understand what motivates these people? How can we learn how to deal with these people if we are forbidden to even ask them the apposite questions?

GEOFF HUTCHISON: And Bill Leak is wondering what will happen to cartoonists and satirists if they are perceived to have stepped over the line. The next time they ridicule a politician, shame an institution or expose corrupt practice, so vague is the language of the legislation, it's open to broad interpretation.

BILL LEAK: I mean, how often do you sit around and say, "Oh, gee, I'd like to kill so and so." What's going to happen? Someone overhears you saying that, they take it literally and bang they're on to the hotline. It is just absurd.

GEOFF HUTCHISON: Philip Ruddock says there's a good faith defence that will protect commentators, cartoonists and satirists, but they seem to be taking little comfort from government reassurances.

JOHN HOWARD, PM: People can still attack me and Mr Beazley and lampoonists, as I am sure they will, without any fear of being put in the slammer.

MAX GILLIES, SATIRIST: It's not up to him to tell us whether we should make jokes at his expense or not. He's our servant. We're not his servants.

GEOFF HUTCHISON: For a generation, Max Gillies has been urging disaffection from government, Parliament, the Constitution and the sovereign. Sedition, he says, is what a good satirist does.

MAX GILLIES: The definitions are so vague you never know what you might say. You try and correct yourself every time you open your mouth. You try and self-sensor, instinctively. This is what we've seen happening in - perish the thought, and you're not allowed to say this - but what we've seen happen in police states. This is exactly what it is like to live if a police state where people have to think about how they express themselves before they open their mouths because you don't know what the consequences might be.

PHILIP RUDDOCK: You're saying, well, if it's an offence, people will be more careful how they act. Well, I think that's a good thing. If people are more careful and people won't be uttering words which are urging people to use force or violence.

GEOFF HUTCHISON: But yesterday a Senate committee expressed strong reservations. Led by the Government's own members, it called for a sedition provisions to be removed from the anti-terror legislation until they could be looked at more closely by the Australian Law Reform Commission. In the meantime, Australia's cartoonists and satirists will continue to practice their craft, pursuing their seditious right to call the king a fool.

PHILIP RUDDOCK: We want to make it very clear that public comment, debate, is something that is encouraged in our society - free speech. But we want to make it clear that people cannot abuse that entitlement to expose other people's lives to possible risk. That's what you are trying to balance.

BILL LEAK: If you went away for sedition at least you could say you were in good company because the first people that spring to mind are Jesus Christ - they got him on sedition - and Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela to name but a few. But, by gee, it would be a poor show if you got banged away for four years just because someone didn't get the joke.